Chanukah: The Menorah, Religious Equilibrium and the Jewish Mission

The menorah of Chanukah, sometimes called the chanukiah, has its roots in the menorah of the Temple. While there are many halachot (regulations) regarding the appearance and structure of the biblical menorah, Rashi, the great French commentator, points to a most remarkable halachic feature. Regarding the instruction to arrange the lamps so that they will be lit “towards the menorah” (Bamidbar 8:2), Rashi explains this to mean that all the lamps should point towards the middle light.

The Italian sage and physician Rav Obadiah Seforno, in his masterful commentary on the Torah, suggests that this is to teach us that the right-wingers and left-wingers need to lean towards the middle. While both are completely dedicated to Torah and its tradition, the right-wingers, i.e. those who are busy with eternal life and learning Torah, need to know that without the left-wingers, those who occupy themselves with the affairs of the mundane world, Judaism will not succeed. At the same time, the left-wingers have to understand that without those who occupy themselves with the study of Torah, their worldly occupation would lack the opportunity of sanctification. Only in a combined effort, symbolized by the middle light, will there be balance as the Torah and Judaism requires. This is based on the talmudic principle that “if not for the leaves, the grapes could not exist” (Chulin 92a).

The great Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch, known for his philosophy of “Torah Im Derech Eretz” (Torah and worldly occupation), and perhaps too much of a religious apologist for our times, comments on Yaacov’s final blessings to his children:

“The nation that is to descend from him (Yaacov) is to be in its external relations a single unit, and internally a Kehal Goyim, a united congregation of many kinds of people and professions. Each tribe is to represent a special type of person. The people of Yaacov who, as Israel, are to reveal to the world the directive power of God penetrating and conquering everything

that is earthly in human beings, is, therefore, not to show as being in any way one-sided, but, as a model nation, shall present in a nutshell the most varied appearance of all different characteristics. In its tribes, martial nations as well as merchant ones, as well as scientific and scholarly ones, etc. are all to be represented. Thus, the fact is to be made clear to the world that the devotion and sanctification of human life in the bond with God through His law is not dependent on a condition to any special calling in life or national characteristic, but that the whole of mankind, with all its diversity, is called on to accept the one common conception of God as taught by Israel and so from all the different individual and national characteristics of mankind into the United Kingdom of God.” (Bereshith 35:11-12, translation by Isaac Levy. This translation from the original German leaves a lot to be desired!)

It is in the concept of “Israel” represented by the people of Israel that all mankind needs to find its inspiration and its purpose. The Jewish people’s history is heilsgeschichte, redemptive history. As Martin Buber writes, “It is the true history of the world” since all that happens and needs to happen somehow takes place and must take place within this small nation (1). Not for the sake of its own interests, but for the sake of the entire world, inspiring them to realize the need for all human endeavors to be dedicated to the Higher Goal. This is a bold statement, perhaps even a disturbing one, but it cannot be denied that Israel’s history indeed includes a meta-existence, which constantly defies the normal criteria of what history permits. Through the Bible, Israel becomes atypical. It pulls all of mankind’s history into its own, sanctifies it and then sends it back to all of mankind. It forces us, perhaps against our will, to admit that Jews are “not be counted among the nations” as the gentile prophet Bilam said (Bamidbar 23:9)

And still, in Israel all religion is history. There is no Judaism without Avraham and Moshe, without Mitzrayim and Sinai. It is deeply grounded in a down-to-earth reality in which even all-too-human trivialities have a place. It is not an abstract proposition to be apprehended simply by some esoteric wisdom and mystical illumination. It denies all attempts to run away from the human task to build the world in the here and now. Judaism is a faith which is enacted as history; it is not to be experienced, understood or communicated apart from that history. Judaism is very physical. It claims that the Torah was given to man in his totality, demanding of him not to abandon or neglect the natural human inclinations and needs, but to embrace his humanity in its fullness. The earth and bodily life are the very ground of halachic reality. In Judaism there is no homo religiosus with his tendency to escape the world, as in some other religions. So there is no physical task or occupation that is left out of its concern. Science, technology, business, art, music are all part of the religious experience. They are not just a means to make an honest living and to foster progress. They are all Torah. In “Israel” all these activities are sanctified and mankind, though often unaware of this, becomes part of the Torah experience.

For the Jewish religious community to deny this is to embarrass Judaism. For religious Jewry to live an authentic Jewish life, it will have to teach its children that our true task as Jews is our universal mission to be an example of the balance between the spiritual and the physical. This is the message of the middle light on the biblical menorah towards which all the other lights are to point.

Share this:

About Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo is the Founder and Dean of the David Cardozo Academy and the Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu in Jerusalem. A sought-after lecturer on the international stage for both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Rabbi Cardozo is the author of 13 books and numerous articles in both English and Hebrew. He heads a Think Tank focused on finding new Halachic and philosophical approaches to dealing with the crisis of religion and identity amongst Jews and the Jewish State of Israel. Hailing from the Netherlands, Rabbi Cardozo is known for his original and often fearlessly controversial insights into Judaism. His ideas are widely debated on an international level on social media, blogs, books and other forums.

Every week I receive hundreds of emails, as well as a host of important observations on my essays, via our website, Facebook, newspaper blogs, and other media outlets. It is therefore completely impossible for me to respond – for which I apologize – but please be assured that I read every comment, which I deeply appreciate and from which I learn so much. Only in exceptional cases will I respond in a subsequent essay. My office staff will try to be more prompt in posting these remarks on our website.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your comments with me, as well as with your fellow readers. I hope you will continue to do so.

Subscribe to Thoughts to Ponder

The David Cardozo Academy seeks to revitalize the Jewish tradition and restore the relevance of Judaism as a force of authentic, non-dogmatic Jewish religiosity in which Jews once more take pride in the divine Torah and its great moral and spiritual mission towards all of mankind.

From the DCA Think Tank

We're delighted to share with you a full-color bulletin with photos detailing what the David Cardozo Academy Think Tank has been up to this year - our regular activities plus an Open Think Tank for the public in March. There are also questions for you to ponder - it wouldn't be the DCA Think Tank without them! Read more →

Think Tank Blogs

Spiritual experiences may represent our yearning for the “infinite”, but this yearning can only find expression in seeking to improve ourselves to the best of our ability and seeking to relate with love to the people and the world around us, while at the same time coming to an acceptance of our finiteness and separateness, overcoming the grief and outrage we feel at not being everything. Yearning for the infinite is really a way of learning how to be finite. Read more →